Glossary
- A / AA / A+ class
- European certification given to appliances combining high performance and minimum energy consumption.
- CGU (Cash Generating Unit)
- The smallest identifiable group of activities that generate incoming cash flows and are largely independent of incoming cash flows from other activities or groups of activities.
- Call rate
- Number of service requests over total products sold.
- Corporate Governance
- Rules and codes of conduct disciplining the control of a company, its ownership structure and the efficiency of its management in pursuing business objectives.
- Defined benefit plan
- Fixed income pension scheme that a company must pay its retired employees. Fixed contribution pension scheme. The amount of income will depend on the contribution payments and on yields.
- Defined contribution plan
- Fixed contribution pension scheme. The amount of income will depend on the contribution payments and on yields.
- EBITDA/EBIT
- Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (gross operating margin) / Earnings before interest and taxes (operating margin).
- EPS (Earning Per Share)
- Net profits (losses) for the year over the number of shares in circulation.
- Fair Value option
- The possibility of stating at fair value certain assets and liabilities with specific characteristics.
- Fair value
- Price at which an asset may be traded or a liability extinguished in a free transaction between informed and consenting parties.
- Financial covenant
- Clauses stipulated to discipline financial events (esp. loans and credit lines).
- Free cash flow
- Cash flows from operating business and investment activities net of dividend payouts and capital increases.
- Hedge accounting
- A method that designates a hedging instrument, normally a derivative, as an offset to changes in the fair value or cash flows of a hedged item.
- IAS/IFRSTM
- International Accounting Standards/International Financial Reporting Standards.
- Impairment test
- An assessment carried out at each balance sheet reference date to search for indications that assets may have undergone lasting loss of value and to estimate recoverable values.